Chapter 923: A Bit Chaotic

The picture album shattered.

The world collapsed.

The data should have returned together with the Painted World.

Why is Hua still this size?

Heimu remembers that the only thing she altered in the Painted World was its temporary data, and theoretically, after the picture album shatters, all modifications would be cleared.

But the Hua standing before her now has muscles that, compared to when she beat a Herrscher in the ruins, have only increased, slick and glossy, with astonishing dimensions.

Heimu looks at Hua's delicate face paired with a body that could toss a Herrscher like a sandbag, and a very ancient image suddenly pops into her mind.

A character from an old domestic animation who was two meters tall, muscular, yet had a cute face.

What was that character called... Nezha.

Right, Nezha from Shi Leng!

Now Hua's appearance shares the same abstract vibe as that Nezha, both looking like "God swapped the parameters of a loli and a bodybuilding champion."

"What the heck is this?"

She muttered softly.

Hua heard her voice, turned her head to look at her.

Her ice‑blue eyes held a calm, earnest light, which looked especially out of place on that massive frame.

"Where is this... what place? Just now that—those Flame, that pit— and father—"

She paused, her brows furrowing tighter, lowered her head to stare at her own hands—hands that could crush a Flame Herrscher's Ruler Core—flipping them before her as if checking something she wasn't sure was hers, "What... what happened to me?"

Heimu opened her mouth, about to explain the convoluted cause‑and‑effect chain in a more gentle way: "I tweaked your panel, you beat a Herrscher, the Painted World shattered, so we ended up back at the Ditie Yuetai."

"Eh? Where is this? Weren't we just on that terrifying street— huh, huh, huh, what is this place, so green! The lights are green! Everything's green! Are we in the underground haunted house of some theme park?!"

The voice came from Heimu's right side, its timbre crisp and bright.

Heimu froze for a moment.

She slowly turned her head, her dark‑purple eyes gazing toward the source.

Kaluoer was standing on the yellow tactile paving at the edge of the platform, a large yellow bow crookedly hanging on her white off‑shoulder top, and several gray smudges on her long, firm wheat‑colored legs beneath black shorts.

She was on tiptoe peering into the tunnel, her warm golden eyes wide open, her expression more curious than fearful.

Her white short hair glimmered with a faint green sheen in the green light.

Heimu watched Kaluoer's wheat‑colored face, excited yet a bit confused, and a logical‑processing thread in her brain briefly stalled.

Not?

Kaluoer isn't a character from the Painted World, right?

Heimu raised her right hand and pinched the bridge of her nose.

She's done that motion far too many times today.

The scene was a bit chaotic.

She spent about half a second mentally gauging the current chaos, while Ying stared wide‑eyed at Hua's muscles, the knife in her hand trembling.

Hua stared blankly at her palms, trying to understand why she had become a strong woman capable of crushing a Herrscher's Ruler Core with her bare hands.

Kaluoer was squatting at the platform edge, studying the tactile paving on the ground.

Kesi Mo stood beside a column on the platform, his fully enclosed helmet still expressionless, but the warm orange pattern flickered so fast it seemed to be sending telegraphs.

Ge Lei Xiu crouched beside a public seat, quietly picking up scattered fan‑art album fragments, stacking one sheet onto another, as if any bizarre event in the world mattered less than those torn pages in her hands.

Heimu lowered her hand from her nose, inhaling deeply.

Then she raised both hands and clapped sharply.

The clap rang especially crisp in the spacious Ditie Yuetai, the sound waves bouncing off the tiled walls several times.

Everyone's attention was drawn to her.

"Alright. Everyone, listen to me."

Heimu lowered her hands, speaking calmly, "The situation is a bit complicated, but it's fine. We'll deal with them one by one."

She first turned to Ying, dark‑purple eyes meeting gray‑purple eyes under the green light.

"Ying. Where is this? You've been outside the whole time, so you should know the situation better than us."

Ying tightened her grip on the knife, the tip finally steady.

She inhaled deeply, pulling her gaze away from Hua's biceps, readjusting to a composed state.

"The train suddenly stopped. Then the doors opened automatically. After I got off, I was here, on this platform. It's the same structure as where we boarded, but a different station."

Heimu looked into Ying's eyes, her dark‑purple gaze lingering on his face for about two seconds.

Then she nodded.

"I see. Alright, I understand."

She turned to Hua.

She looked up at her.

Honestly, this upward angle made her a bit uncomfortable; before she could glance at Hua with a slight downward gaze, now she had to tilt her neck dozens of degrees back to see Hua's face.

It feels like you've been caring for a succulent, go out for a while, come back to find it grown into a towering tree; you stand at the base, looking up at the canopy, and besides being stunned you have a faint confusion of "Can this thing still be put back into the pot?"

"Hua."

"How do you feel now? Is anything uncomfortable with your body?"

Hua lowered her head, looking at Heimu.

That massive body, capable of tossing a Herrscher like a towel, stood still, its huge shadow cast on the faintly green platform tiles, enveloping Heimu entirely.

Her expression was calm and restrained, yet the confusion in her ice‑blue eyes was so dense it seemed about to overflow.

"My body isn't uncomfortable. In fact, I feel very strong."

She lowered her head and looked at her own arm, "But I remember two things at once: I remember my father's Martial Arts Hall. Yet I also remember that I am Pursuing Fire Thirteen Yingjie, I remember Past World Paradise, I remember—"

She stopped there, a hint of bewilderment flashed in her ice‑blue eyes, then she shook her head, "The memories on both sides feel like I personally experienced them. I can't tell which came first, which came later."

Heimu listened to Hua's description and roughly formed a count in his mind.

The Painted World student Hua's Memory and the Past World Paradise Fire‑Chasing Heroic Scion Hua's Memory coexist simultaneously, and both sets of Memory are regarded as "real" by Hua herself.

Fortunately, the two sets of Memory do not conflict with each other.

"Come over here a moment. I'll sort it out for you."

Heimu took a step forward, lifted his right hand, fingertips pointing upward, signaling Hua to bend her waist.

Hua obediently bent her waist.

Even while bent, her face remained roughly level with Heimu's line of sight, and this scene caused the nearby Ying Momo to turn her head the other way.

Heimu extended his index finger, the fingertip lightly tapping Hua's forehead between the eyebrows.

A stream of violet‑black data surged from his fingertip, seeping through the skin at Hua's brow into the depths of her consciousness.

Hua kept the bent‑over posture and blinked.

In her ice‑blue eyes, the pupils dilated and contracted rapidly.

Then she straightened up, tilted her head; the motion was exactly the same as when she had looked at Heimu in confusion in the restroom, only this version carried an added weight of muscle.

"…So I am Fire‑Chasing Heroic Scion. I'm also the daughter of the Martial Arts Hall. The events that occurred in Past World Paradise, I have a vague recollection."

She paused, her brow furrowed again, this time a few degrees deeper than before, her lips tightened then relaxed, and she frankly concluded, "I don't fully understand. My mind seems to be turning slower than before."

Heimu looked at Hua's earnest yet evidently lagging‑in‑thought face, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Probably her brain is being compressed by the muscles.